1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to middleware systems, and more particularly to middleware systems that use databases to configure the integration of various applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vast amounts of data are stored, transmitted, and manipulated in today's Internet driven world. Organization of this data so that information can easily be accessed is thus an important need. Huge amounts of data are often organized in databases. Such stored data often cuts across several databases and other applications that may support a business, and several customers that an Application Service Provider (ASP) may service. The customers serviced by an ASP can be referred to as “e-clients.”
A single e-client often uses various applications. For example, an e-client may have an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) that is used with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to direct customers of the e-client to particular customer service representatives that have expertise in a particular area. Further, the e-client may have a web page which allows its customers to enter into interactive sessions on the web page and learn more information about products and support issues. Further, e-mail can be used by e-clients to contact their customers and for customers to contact the e-client business regarding sales and support issues. Such an e-client may use an IVR application, a web application, and an email application.
These various applications may be on a single server, or on various different servers. In either case, it is desirable to be able to exchange messages between applications, and to route these messages accurately from one application to another, regardless of whether the applications reside on a single server or on different servers.
In some conventional systems, this problem is handled by specifying a configuration file for each application. The configuration file for an application may specify where messages sent by the application are to be delivered. However, when such application specific configuration files are used, it is difficult to dynamically modify or update the system. Any time a change needs to be made (for example, a new e-client is to be added), each of the configuration files for each application on each server need to be updated accordingly.
Another issue arises in systems that integrate multiple applications. Conventionally, each application needs to be aware of the existence of the other applications. Each application also needs knowledge of which server the other applications are using, and so on, in order to route messages to these other applications. One of the problems with such a system is that any time a new application is added or deleted, each of the other applications needs to be modified to reflect that change. Dynamic addition or deletion of applications, while the rest of the applications continue to function in a normal manner, is not possible.
Some conventional applications eliminate this issue by providing a central message processing “hub” which each application is aware of. However, the “hub” solution has another drawback, which is that each message must first be sent to the hub for processing, then re-sent by the hub to the ultimate destination of the message, and this is inefficient.
In addition, several e-clients may use each of these applications. Thus it is important to keep data for each e-client secure, and not allow it to be accessed by any other e-clients. It is thus often desirable to segregate data, regardless of what application requires that data.
There are two ways in which conventional systems deal with this problem. One approach entails having applications which themselves support partitioning of data. However, this approach implies that only applications that have this partitioning capability can be used. Since not all applications possess this capability, systems employing this approach are restricted in the applications they can support.
The second approach entails using separate servers for separate e-clients. However, this approach often results in the increased use of hardware and/or software, and is thus expensive and cumbersome. Hosting multiple e-clients on a single server, and/or using the same software instances of applications for different e-clients, is more economical.
Thus what is needed is (1) a system and method for enabling the configurable exchange of messages between applications, regardless of the servers on which these applications may reside; (2) a system and method for centralizing control of message exchange, but which distributes the message processing to the applications which produce and consume the messages; (3) a system and method for integrating multiple applications, where the various applications do not need to be aware of the existence of the other applications; and (4) a system and method that segregates data for multiple e-clients and multiple applications.